For context: He was diagnosed in March with Grade 4 pyloric ulcers. His gastric pH was 1.6 at start of treatment. After talking to a leaser who had him before I bought him, he was showing obvious symptoms of ulcers as early as March of 2020 but previous owners didn’t treat. I purchased him in December of 2020 and moved him from Ocala FL to upstate NY. He had most of January and February to just be turned out because I had surgery and couldn’t ride, so we didn’t notice the change in behavior under saddle until March. He had 24/7 access to hay from day 1. Other than not finishing his feed, he didn’t really have any glaring symptoms until he cast himself in the stall multiple times in early March.
We’ve implemented a whole host of management changes. He’s been on 24/7 turnout. He’s had misoprostol (March-present), and was getting GG too (1 full tube daily for 90 days (May/June/July), followed by 2 week taper this month), with rescopes every 30 days to monitor response to treatment. We just finished the GG taper and he’s continuing with the misoprostol and adding sucralfate until our next (hopefully last) rescope at the end of next month.
He’s had blood work to rule out Lyme and we checked Vitamin E/Selenium levels. He had an extensive lameness exam at New Bolton in March including electronic lameness locator, blocks, and radiographs to make sure pain wasn’t a contributing factor. We adjusted his trim/shoeing based on the findings there and have seen a positive response.
He gets monthly chiro/acupuncture with a DVM and massage as well. I sourced and purchased 3rd cutting alfalfa for him to make sure his forage intake is helping as much as it can.
Long story short… we’re far from “just changing the feed”. The feed question is the last piece of what has been an exhaustive diagnostics/treatment process. I’m aiming to prevent recurrence now that we have confirmed with scope that his stomach is almost healed.
